Molten Chocolate Lava Cake

A while back I asked for suggestions of things to make.  I received two so far.  The first suggestion I received was from Joyce - my mother-in-law's friend.  She stated the best dessert she ever had was on a cruise ship, which she loved so much she ordered it every night.  She wondered if there was a way to bake it in a microwaveable container to take home and heat.

I search for the right recipe.  With the internet you can look for recipes and on a lot of websites it also has people's reviews of those recipes.  I found one called "Molten Chocolate Lava Cake" which also explained how to prepare it in the microwave. 

Ingredients:
6 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate 
6 oz butter 
3 eggs
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
butter for greasing ramekins

Part of Joyce's request was to bake it and be able to warm it up in the microwave.  What I found was that this cake takes so little time in the microwave it would be better to sell raw, have the person take it home and microwave it themselves.  The major difference in molten cakes from regular ones is in the way its cooked, as you want the center to be liquid.

 Melt chocolate in microwave or on stove in a double boiler.

Then add butter, melt and combine.

 In separate bowl combine flour and cocoa.

cool picture.  

Mix eggs and sugar until it starts to 'whiten', then add chocolate mixture.

Add flour mixture and mix to combine.

The recipe calls for 6 ramekins, but I don't have the type of ramekins you should use.  Instead I had these (which I use for my french onion soup).  Because these are larger I only made 4 servings.

I even weighed them to make sure they were equal.

 Before baking them, which the recipe offers two ways, in the oven or in the microwave.  We were having company over so I thought - perfect time to see how they would be if they were kept a while before microwaving.  I wrapped them in plastic wrap and placed them in the refrigerator for several hours.

   

 I unwrapped them, placed the first on in the microwave for 1 minute.  The recipe stated 2 minutes but check after 1 minute.  Because I read the reviews, one 'reviewer' stated they microwaved theirs for 45 seconds I decided to start at 1 minute.  

 Apparently, 1 minute was too much.  It was cooked all the way through.  I don't think its because my microwave may be too strong.  I tried 45 seconds, then 5 seconds more as needed.  It was hard to tell if it was baked or not, the appearance of the cake didn't really change.

 But my friends and family enjoyed it.  

I was told it was very rich.  However, microwaving them I had a difficult time creating the 'lava' effect.  At the bottom of the ramekin there was some 'lava'.  I would recommend a smaller portion size since this cake is very rich and a nice blob of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream!!  I'll have to try this in the oven and see if it comes out differently.  If you were going to bake this in an oven the temperature is 350 for 8-10 minutes.